Thursday, June 11, 2009

Part 2 - Race Day


I slept surprisingly well that night for being in a different place and being riled up about the race the next day.

Our hotel was about a mile from the meeting place. So we walked to get a decent warm up. Along the way you could see other runners heading in the same direction. They would come from behind us or from the side streets. But you could see a definite pilgrimage toward Howard Street.

We passed a few other runners on the way and a heard one woman mutter to her girlfriends “I am SO hung over.”

I know the Bay to Breakers is considered a big moving party. But why would you party the night before? I can’t imagine running hung over! I said as much to Kris and he wisely commented, “I doubt she’s running today.” True. There are a lot of people who walk the route.

We allotted more time than we thought we’d need to get to the meeting spot because I was paranoid about showing up late. I mostly didn’t want to show up late because I have never met any of these people before and I didn’t want to make a bad impression. We were to meet at an intersection near the start line. Meeting time was 7:00 am and we showed up at 7:07. Damn.

And no one was there. Damn! Oh no, that was good. We could say we showed up at 6:45 and no one would be the wiser!

So Kris and I kept our eyes peeled for any one in a green Organic Athlete singlet. I wasn’t nervous about no one being there because I knew there was no way we would be only ones of the whole group to show up. I just figured the OAs were on ‘Vegan’ time.

Kris and I kept scanning the intersection. Kris spotted one first.

“There’s one,” Kris said pointing to the traffic signal twenty feet away.

At first I didn’t see him. Then he turned and I could see his singlet peeking out from the opening of his jacket. He didn’t see us. So I walked right over and tapped his arm.

He was as tall as Kris so when he turned and didn’t see anyone his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Hi!” I chirped.

He looked down toward the voice.

“We’re running with you today,” I smiled and pointed to my Organic Athletes bike jersey.

“Oh great." I thought I was the only one here.”

“No, I and my husband Kris have been here for a few minutes.”

I introduced Kris, and our team mate introduced himself as…”Chris”.

I almost yelled, “Oh! You’re Chris with a “C” too!” But I knew he wouldn’t understand. (It’s a family thing.) So I just smiled and said, “Nice to meet you.”

Our team mates started showing up by one or twos. I noticed one lady wasn’t in running gear. She was hauling a HUGE backpack. It looked like a duffle bag. I was introduced to Jane and told she was schlepping our extra gear to the after party.

“You’re our sherpa! Thank you so much for doing that!”

“You’re welcome,” she said as she pulled out everyone’s race packets. She handed me mine I and went through it carefully to make sure it had my name, the correct bib number and chip. Everything was there and everything was perfect! Then Kevin handed out the matching singlets we’d run in. I had ordered an extra large. I figured they were made for runners. So a large in regular clothes had to be at least an extra large for a runner’s build. But something happened with the order and they couldn’t get my extra large (the factory probably ran out of material or something). So they brought a large for me instead. I was worried that it’d be too tight. But I figured I’d only be running for a couple hours so I could manage it for that long.

I changed in to the large. OMG!! It was big!! Not too big. But I had plenty of room! I am so used to athletic clothes being cut so slim that I usually have to buy the largest size. I was shocked! But it was great! I’d be able to run in comfort!

Everyone put on their gear, clipped their chips and pinned their bibs. We were ready to go. So we waited. And waited. The race was supposed to start at 8 am. We still had to walk to the starting corral. But we were missing two teammates.

No comments: